Family poverty in Canton: Worst among Ohio's biggest cities

Robert Wang

Tuesday

Sep 29, 2009 at 12:01 AM

More than a quarter of Canton’s population lived in poverty as of last year, according to the U.S. Census. In contrast, more than a tenth of Stark County’s residents earned less than federal poverty guidelines.

Canton’s percentage of families who live below the poverty level rose last year to become the highest among Ohio’s major cities, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census.

Nearly 28 percent of family households in Stark County’s largest municipality earned income less than the federal poverty line. Canton edged Youngstown, which had a family poverty percentage of 27 percent.

Canton’s figure of 27.9 percent was a significant jump from the 2007 estimate of 16.6 percent and the 2006 estimate of 22.4 percent. And Canton’s 2008 poverty rate is nearly triple the national average of 9.7 percent.

The poverty line, which depends on the number of people and children in a household, can range from an annual income of $10,326 for an elderly individual to $14,051 for a couple to $21,834 for a couple with two children.

“Every urban area in the country is facing extraordinary challenges, and we’re no different,” said Canton Council President Allen Schulman.

“I think it’s extremely disappointing that we are the worst. ... We just have to work a lot harder in our community to pull people out of poverty. The only way to do that is an economic renaissance.”

Other cities rank lower

The percentage of families in poverty was 25 percent in Cleveland, about 20 to 21 percent in Dayton, Lorain, Toledo, Cincinnati and Akron and 15 percent in Columbus, according to the U.S. Census’ 2008 American Community Survey, which was released today.

Like a political poll or the Nielsen television audience ratings, the Census data is based on responses to detailed surveys mailed out to about 3 percent of all households in the country throughout 2008. The Census Bureau’s statisticians then extrapolate the data to the entire population.

In the percentage of individuals with incomes below the poverty level, Canton ranked fourth among Ohio’s largest cities at 27.3 percent. Youngstown was first with 1 in 3 people living in poverty while Cleveland and Dayton were around 29 to 30 percent. Besides declining incomes, poverty rates can be boosted by an exodus of people with higher incomes out of a city and the influx of people with lower incomes into an urban area.

Canton also had the third lowest median annual household income in 2008 of the Buckeye state’s most populous municipalities, at $27,130. It ranked just behind $26,731 for Cleveland and $24,378 for Youngstown. Canton was also third in the percentage of households accepting food stamps sometime during the 12 months before the survey was filled out, at 24 percent. Cleveland ranked at 26 percent and Youngstown at 29.6 percent.

Indicating the difficulties facing many of the state’s urban areas, the percentage of families in poverty in Stark County was significantly lower at 10.6 percent and 9.8 percent for Ohio. For percentages of people in poverty, the figures were 12.3 percent for the county and 13.4 percent for the state.

“All the metrics you’ve given to me are unacceptable,” said Schulman, who added that economic development efforts locally have not been enough to turn around the economy. “We have to do better, and ultimately, it falls on every public official to move this city and the county forward economically.”

Worst yet to come?

Tom Thompson, deputy director of the human services division for the Stark County Department of Job and Family Services, was not shocked by the numbers. He was only surprised that the overall poverty percentage for the county wasn’t higher.

Thompson, who oversees the distribution of public assistance to the area’s poor, said the number of residents receiving food stamps jumped 20 percent from January to August to 50,615. The number of people getting aid through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program has gone up 9 percent to 7,806 people from January to August.

Thompson expects the poverty rates for the county to worsen as people’s unemployment benefits run out after more than a year of joblessness.

“They’re definitely a lot more people in Stark County as a whole that have lost jobs or have jobs with lower income where they have fewer hours of work available to them,” Thompson said.

While pay in Stark County tends to be lower than in Ohio’s largest metropolitan areas, the cost of living is also lower, perhaps exaggerating the level of poverty in this area, said Thompson. That’s because the dollars of residents here will buy more than the dollars of those in Columbus. Federal poverty income guidelines do not vary according to geography.

At the Salvation Army in downtown Canton on Monday, Grace Marshall, 67, of Canton, and several of her family members were eating one of the many free lunches distributed by the nonprofit agency.

Living with her unemployed 31-year-old grandson and her 6-year-old great-grandson, Marshall estimates she earns less than $14,000 from Social Security and her part-time job as a nurse’s assistant. The poverty line for a household of two adults and a child is $17,330. She wasn’t surprised to hear that more than a quarter of Canton’s population is considered poor by the U.S. Census.

“It’s awful, but what are you going to about it?” she asked. “They’re no jobs. ... Social Security don’t pay enough to live on.”

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